The World Bank sets the poverty line at $1.25 a day, and on that basis asserts that poverty is declining. But is that right? Where did that figure come from? The New Economics Foundation estimates that it should be set at $5 a day, and others suggest $10. Rejecting the idea that ‘the poor’ need to rely on benign assistance, and that the market provides the answer, Dr, Ben Selwyn puts forward the view that the capital/labour relationship is the reason most of the world’s workers are poor, and advocates labour-centred development – where ‘the poor’ (the global labouring classes), and their own collective actions and struggles constitute the basis of an alternative form of non-elitist, bottom-up human development.